Advertising Management

I just came across a new interesting research paper by Shiv et al. that discusses the placebo effects of marketing. The authors show that marketing actions can change on a very basic level the utility derived from the product,

"In three experiments we show that consumers paying a discounted price for a product (e.g., an energy drink thought to increase mental acuity) can end up deriving less actual benefit from consuming this product (e.g., they are able to solve fewer puzzles) compared to consumers who purchase and consume the exact same product but pay its regular price."

This highlights the power that marketers have on people's basic perceptions.